About us

Stichting De Leidse Rederij (Foundation Leiden’s Shipping Company)

‘Nothing is too crazy for us!

Leiden is a proper water city, with some 28 km of picturesque canals and green fringed moats. Along old waterways, we can see many sites and monuments in the cosy city centre, such as Leiden University, many museums, monumental buildings, beautiful almhouses, old alleys and other remains of a glorious past.This treasure of knowledge, culture and science inspired us in 2004 to found a Shipping Company in Leiden in order to show this splendor from the waterfront. We started with a small fleet, which has in the meantime expanded to twelve characteristic boats.

A team of over sixty volunteers (skippers, guides and ship-technicians), all very fond of old-Leiden, supports the ‘Stichting De Leidse Rederij’ (the formal name of the foundation). All skippers are properly trained and are in the possession of a skipper’s license and a VHF-Certificate. Our fleet meets all regulatory requirements as specified by the shipping inspection authorities for commercial ships and is equipped with the necessary safety facilities.Our aim is to keep historical characteristic ships, in accordance with the old townscape, in good shipshape. By doing so, we intend to offer our passengers a fine impression of the history of Leiden as water city. Our skippers and guides have the pleasure of taking you ‘on board’ with good stories from the tumultuous past of Leiden. Our team knows many ins and outs of Leiden’s history and every trip is different. This way you get to know quite a lot about the ‘cityofdiscoveries’ in a pleasant way.

Samenwerkingsorganisatie Beroepsonderwijs Bedrijfsleven (a Dutch authority on Business Education) acknowledges Stichting de Leidse Rederij as a training institution. All our services are performed under the CBRB/VNPR conditions for transport of people on inland water traffic.